The present invention relates generally to methods and systems for fabricating nanoparticles, and more particularly, it relates to such methods and systems that allow concurrent generation of a nanoparticle-containing fluid and its filtration to increase the concentration of the nanoparticles therein.
A variety of methods and systems are known for generating nanoparticles. In many such methods, a batch of nanoparticles is initially generated as a suspension, and subsequently the suspension is subjected to various stages of filtration. For example, in one such method, a polymer-containing organic phase is mixed with an aqueous phase to generate a primary emulsion, which is turned into a fine emulsion, e.g., by employing a high-pressure homogenizer. The fine emulsion is quenched, e.g., via its introduction into a quench tank of deionized water, to form a suspension of nanoparticles. Once the formation of the nanoparticles is completed, the nanoparticle suspension is subjected to multiple filtration stages, such as concentration, and diafiltration, to isolate the nanoparticles.
Such conventional methods for fabricating and isolating nanoparticles can be time consuming. Further, many conventional systems for generating nanoparticles require a large space for the processing components, especially as the nanoparticle production process is scaled up.
Thus, there is a need for improved methods and systems of fabricating and isolating nanoparticles that would provide reduced processing time as well as a smaller system foot-print.